The Defiant Mark
by EsurientStoic
Summary: Revised. A distraught visitor comes to Severus's door demanding the truth. SSLE


A distinctive pop sounded outside Severus's door. He cautiously cracked the door open and peered out. The door was quickly flung wide, and the intruder rounded on him.

"Is it true?" Before he had time to recover from the shock of who had barged into his apartment, she grabbed his shoulders and pinned him up against the wall, "Is what they're all saying true?"

His dark eyes flashed angrily. "I do not know what you have heard or from whom…"

"James told me," she interrupted, stepping back and releasing his robes, seemingly acknowledging the division that this name put between them, "He told me he saw you in Diagon Alley and that you've taken the mark."

"I would think you would know better by now than to believe even one tenth of what Potter…" he spat the name out, "…tells you. Besides, it is rather unseemly of you to come barging into _my_ home accusing _me_ of something for which you have no evidence except for the questionable testimony of someone who has made it his chief end in life to torment me."

"Don't try to distract me. I'm not accusing you. I asked you a question. Is it true? Did you put that despicable tattoo on your arm? Tell me it's not true, Sev. Tell me you haven't made a decision you can't take back."

"I most certainly _have_ chosen a path from which I can never turn. I have been marked for life," he responded tacitly, "I only had one choice to make."

"I don't believe you!" she rasped, her voice almost inhuman. She madly grabbed at his left arm and yanked back his sleeve. The magically animated tattoo she uncovered sapped all her remaining strength and her knees started to buckle. Her hands caught in his robes as she fell, and Severus grabbed her elbows to help break her fall. Lily quivered as she choked on her sobs, "H-how long, S-sev?"

He allowed the weight of everything to push them to their knees. He brushed a strand of hair off her face, "It was all decided years ago, even before we got to Hogwarts."

"Lily," he said her name for the first time since she had burst through his door. He regarded her with a gentleness he dared not show to anyone but her, "There was never anything else I would choose."

"Why didn't you ever tell me? Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"You seemed happy enough with your boyfriend. Or if I am to believe every rumor I hear, he is your fiancé now," he voiced bitterly, his body noticeably tensing, "Speaking of whom, I hardly think he would approve of you being here."

She pushed away from him slightly, her green eyes glinting defiantly. Her anger at his comment renewed her energy, if only momentarily, "I am sick and tired of worrying about James's approval. That's why I broke things off with him four months ago. I couldn't stand that he continued to pick at you, hex you, ridicule you even after he seemed to have realized that it was immature and stopped doing all those awful things to everyone else. I think it's because he knew…" Somewhere during the course of her rant, her wildly gesturing hands had rested around Severus's middle.

"Knew what?" Severus's brows knitted together.

"Knew that, knew that I," Lily paused, drew in a breath, and began again, "I tried to hate you. Ever since you called me a mudblood in front of everyone," Severus's shoulders slumped at that, and his face fell, as if gravity had taken a new hold on him. She soldiered on, "I tried to block out your apologies, your pleading. But I couldn't. Maybe because I heard in your voice what I felt so strongly. The loneliness I felt without you was crushing. I tried to convince myself that the pang I felt every time you passed me in the hallway, every time our eyes met across the classroom or the great hall, was just because we had been friends. That the unusual bond to you I felt was just because you'd revealed this world of magic to me. I tried to hate you…" Lily's crying had now completely consumed her and her body shook violently with each sob. Severus embraced her more tightly and her tears began to subside. When she was finally still, she breathed, "but I'm in love with you." Lily leaned back to look in Severus's face. His lips parted slightly and as he lifted his wand and wordlessly conjured a handkerchief, his incredulous eyes never left hers. He turned his attention to dabbing the tears from her neck and chin and cheeks and as he returned to her eyes she spoke again, soberly and her voice unwavering, "I love you, Sev." She repeated with a hint of a smile, "I love you." This time, the words flowed easily from her lips, as if this proclamation were neither new nor earth shattering.

"Lily, I love you also," Severus said thickly, "I've always loved you. Since the day I first spoke to you in the park." He threaded his fingers through her hair and stilled at the base of her skull as he pressed his lips against hers. Her lips crushed against his eagerly. Her hands traveled from Severus's waist past his chest and her fingers began to gently tug at the hair at the nape of his neck. Severus failed to suppress a groan at this, and she nudged her tongue between his parted lips. As the warmth from her mouth spread through his veins, over his body, his entire being, he grasped Lily's shoulders and pulled away, giving her a final peck with his now swollen lips.

"I should have told you. I should have shown you I would give anything, everything for you. I should have lain by that damned portrait hole until either you forgave me or your aforementioned housemate hexed me into oblivion. But I was a coward."

Lily laughed, "You're no coward. You're the bravest person I've ever met, to spit in Voldemort's face like this, with this tattoo in the would-be location to mark your faithfulness to him," she now tenderly stroked Severus's forearm, watching the familiar flower open and close repeatedly. A broad grin spread over Lily's face as she glanced up at her companion and saw a lazy smile she had seen only a handful of times.


End file.
